My improvised quiet PC (in a 3700AMB)

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 6:44 pm

Here's my PC which I've been slugishly tampering away at for a long time:

The PSU's a 350W 12cm fan sparkle, the case is a 3700AMB. The drive at the front's a 'cuda 4, which I suspect is unusually shaky, the one at the back's a jvc-motor spinpoint. Everything but the CPU and PSU fans is plugged into the 5v line, the hard drive fans (cheap zalman fans) also have resistors. The video card has a zalman flower(CNPS3000) on it. The rest of the oddities should be obvious from the pics.

The CPU's a palomino 2000+, after 1.5 hours light use, CPU diode temps are 39C average, 44 high. Baracuda is 34C.

I know the obstructive rear grill needs to go.

I wonder if this is the messiest PC here.

Edit: subject and 3rd image

pangit · Post by **pangit** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:32 pm

Oooh, tidy those wires!

Seriously, it will help your airflow a lot and bring down your temps, even though they are pretty good already.

What CPU heatsink are you using? Is that an old aluminium Thermalright?

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:11 pm

It's a thermaltake volcano 9.

One problem with the wires, the MB power plug is longer than it needs to be, but not long enough to be able to be tucked away somewhere. I can't put any on the floor, but I'll see if I can tuck more of them into the drive bays.

silverback · Post by **silverback** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:01 am

I hope you dont mind a little objective opinion.

remove that plastic fan holder on the back and replace with ear grommets. They are way better.

clean up your wiring. alot even to improve airflow.

regardless what speed, less fans is less noise. I find that 1 fan at 7 volts is quieter then say 2 at 5. if you can try and use the intake fan to hit both hard drives so you can dump the other fan I think there will be a noticable difference. At least it should be I cant tell what the other fans are or what speed they are at.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:26 am

[applause in background]
Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to!!!
[/applause in background]

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 8:52 am

silverback wrote:I hope you dont mind a little objective opinion.

remove that plastic fan holder on the back and replace with ear grommets. They are way better.

I will when I remove the grill, but I don't know how much it'll help, it doesn't get much quieter when I put my finger on the hub, though I guess it could still be vibrating when stopped, and it could vibrate more when the ball bearings wear out.

silverback wrote:regardless what speed, less fans is less noise. I find that 1 fan at 7 volts is quieter then say 2 at 5. if you can try and use the intake fan to hit both hard drives so you can dump the other fan I think there will be a noticable difference.

They're not both on actually, since both hard drives aren't usually on. When they are, the fan ramps up quite a bit, though the coil noise from the FSP seems to go down significantly. Rather ironic, a JVC spinpoint reducing whine, I'm hoping that when I try it with just the spinpoint, the coil noise will be gone or greatly reduced.

I don't think using one intake fan for the two drives would work at all. I'd have to move the spinpoint onto the styrofoam platform, then the drives would be over the edges a bit, and the spinpoint does have a whinny JVC motor and having it at the back with all that stuff in the way seems to block the whine somewhat.

silverback wrote:At least it should be I cant tell what the other fans are or what speed they are at.

Cheap zalman fans at ~3-4V(33 ohm resistors).

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:35 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to!!!

What do you mean? I don't have my PSU outside the case yet, and I still haven't tried a 2 or 3 directional fan mod.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 2:33 pm

I can't use the ear grommets.

The holes on the fan and case aren't lined up right. So instead I put some foam between the plastic fan holder and the fan. I heated the fan holder a little and tried bending it appart, but I don't know if that helped.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:35 pm

This article has an example of how you could mount a fan when there is a misalignment between the holes in fan and case. I have the same case as the one in the article but haven't tried out the mounting method since I don't use any exhaust fans, so I can't give any comments of it's effectiveness. Off course, there's also a possibilty that this won't work at all with your case.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:36 pm

More ways for mounting a fan when the holes don't align are discussed in the next thread:
Bluefront's - New Fan Mount Design....DIY

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 6:45 am

Yet another way to mount the fan when the holes don't line up.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:14 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:Yet another way to mount the fan when the holes don't line up.

I have no experience whatsoever with power tools, and I don't have an awl. I'm considering the foam mount method, though i seems a little insecure. I wouldn't want the fan to fall on anything, so maybe I could mount it on the outside with foam. Then I could also try a decasing/ multidirectional fan mod for it.

I think I'll start testing the decased fan idea before doing anything more about that rear fan.

efcoins · Post by **efcoins** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 9:58 am

mathias wrote:
Ralf Hutter wrote:Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to...Ghe-to!!!
What do you mean? I don't have my PSU outside the case yet, and I still haven't tried a 2 or 3 directional fan mod.

No I do not understand what he means either, my PC has 1.5 reals of insulation tape in it, holding everything together, this one looks to have about 1/4 of a real in it, very neatly made.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 12:08 pm

efcoins wrote:No I do not understand what he means either, my PC has 1.5 reals of insulation tape in it, holding everything together, this one looks to have about 1/4 of a real in it, very neatly made.

I was joking and mentioning I could make it more ghettoish with the external PSU and sawed up fans(an idea which isn't working as planned).

What he was probably refering to is:

-two drives on foam
-styrofoam platform
-baracuda fan attached with bent motherboard rear panel on foam
-spinpoint fan attached with bent tin sniped stamped grill
-zalman flower on video card
-multiple uses of 5v line and resistors[/list]

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:06 pm

My habit of constanly comandeering space for silencing caused me some difficulties, I needed to use a gamport, but I've already blocked all my PCI slots. I could have used the panel above the AGP slot, but didn't want to case more cable clutter in the middle section of the case, and didn't want to remove the zalman fan bracket, so I decided I had to put the gameport somewhere at the front instead. The bottom air hole seemed the only suitable place and luckily one of the holes in the metal was just big enough to fit the internal connector through, and the cable was long enough:

This should also work with a serial port, since the connector is smaller.

Zyrin · Post by **Zyrin** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:07 am

if u aren't using ur harddrive cage.. u can drill the rivets holding it to the case out. or tap it out. or jus use a de-rivetting tool. wonder if u can wire those fans together so u would not have to use the zalman silencer thingies. u know u have to reduce the number of fans u have.. and use any type of elastic (one for each side of the fan) and feed it through the fan hole then out teh case and tie it together.. I'm sure u can figure it out. or use spade terminals.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:55 pm

The fans don't make all that much noise, it's the power supply that's the biggest problem, so I made a duct to keep the hot air from the CPU away from it:

The PSU fan now seems to ramp up significantly less, but the CPU tepms are a bit higher.

And after that I finally got rid of that plastic fan holder and attached the rear fan with zip ties and foam, but that doesn't seem to have helped much for either temps or noise.

Next target: whinny PSU coil(s)

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:35 pm

Update:

The yate loon D12SH (2200rpm) in the power supply kept quickly ramping up and getting noisy, and the only replacement fan I could find was a nexus, which I figured was a too big drop, so I figured I'd do that and put it outside the case. I tried putting it outside first, it didn't ramp up at all anymore, but was now much too loud at minimum speed, so I went ahead with the swap:

That helped a lot. I've connected it to the PSU's fan controller, it stays at around 750rpm.

I've upgraded some of the parts, got an SI-97 with a 92mm nexus, and got a zalman fan controller:

I drilled out the drive cage mounting point; removing rivets is a hassle. I didn't get rid of the spinpoint fan, but made it more useful by making it into an exhaust fan outside the case(partly to make up for the PSU fan not serving that function anymore), the spinpoint got hotter, so I ducted most of that fan to the drive, and left a little bit(~2/3 of a PCI slot) unducted to cool the video card(not really neccessary, although it does give me some room to upgrade easily) and to exhaust it's heat:

ckolivas · Post by **ckolivas** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:47 pm

Fan mounting without extra hardware; see lower in this post. http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19047
Note also the decoupler I've used to silence the PSU and hard drives also no special hardware required (blutack).

theyangster · Post by **theyangster** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:18 pm

I now see why you are concerned about PSU's

your wiring on the other hand...

still I like the ducts you used, is it heavy stock paper?

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:01 pm

The cardbord I use kind of like that of game boxes, except a bit thicker and more rigid.